Brian Stelter, CNN’s chief media correspondent, praised his company for condemning President Trump as racist after a series of tweets the president sent out attacking the “squad” of liberal congresswomen.
“President Trump launched a bigoted attack against four minority congresswomen on Sunday morning. His tweets were straight up racist. Did the news media accurately describe it that way?” Stelter said in a CNN post Monday. “By and large, no, most major news outlets did not do that. Reporters and anchors took the story seriously but largely leaned on ‘critics,’ primarily Democrats, and cited their accusations of racism. The significance of Trump’s words risked being lost in a partisan fog.”
“He said/she said is a tried and true journalistic technique, of course, but it is insufficient at a time like this. If telling Democratic congresswomen to ‘go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came’ isn’t racist, what is?” Stelter added. “There were some exceptions — CNN chief among the news outlets — that called out this example of racism emanating from the highest office in the land in an authoritative, institutional voice. CNN’s banners and headlines said ‘racist rant’ and ‘racist attacks.'”
Institutional voice matters. Some news outlets are using it while covering Trump’s “go back” tweets… but many are not. Here’s my recaphttps://t.co/e3MbIHSdSe
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 15, 2019
Stelter, 33, was left speechless on CNN Sunday over what he called “straight-up racism” from President Trump.
Trump went on a Twitter tirade Sunday in which he told the liberal Democratic congresswomen to “go back and help fix” where they came from.
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” Trump said. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
Trump’s tweets were aimed at the liberal “squad” of Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Ocasio-Cortez and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had just finished a weeklong war of words over the influence of the liberal lawmakers before Trump made his comments.
